Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC Rich Text Editor Control

18 Jun 20248 minutes to read

This section briefly explains about how to include ASP.NET MVC Rich Text Editor control in your ASP.NET MVC application using Visual Studio.

Prerequisites

System requirements for ASP.NET MVC controls

Create ASP.NET MVC application with HTML helper

Install ASP.NET MVC package in the application

To add ASP.NET MVC controls in the application, open the NuGet package manager in Visual Studio (Tools → NuGet Package Manager → Manage NuGet Packages for Solution), search for Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 and then install it.

Package Manager
Install-Package Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 -Version 27.2.2

NOTE

Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls are available in nuget.org. Refer to NuGet packages topic to learn more about installing NuGet packages in various OS environments. The Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 NuGet package has dependencies, Newtonsoft.Json for JSON serialization and Syncfusion.Licensing for validating Syncfusion license key.

NOTE

If you create ASP.NET MVC application with MVC4 package, search for Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC4 and then install it.

Add namespace

Add Syncfusion.EJ2 namespace reference in Web.config under Views folder.

<namespaces>
    <add namespace="Syncfusion.EJ2"/>
</namespaces>

Add stylesheet and script resources

Here, the theme and script is referred using CDN inside the <head> of ~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows,

~/_Layout.cshtml
<head>
    ...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls styles -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/fluent.css" />
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls scripts -->
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/dist/ej2.min.js"></script>
</head>

NOTE

Checkout the Themes topic to learn different ways (CDN, NPM package, and CRG) to refer styles in ASP.NET MVC application, and to have the expected appearance for Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls. Checkout the Adding Script Reference topic to learn different approaches for adding script references in your ASP.NET MVC application.

Register Syncfusion script manager

Also, register the script manager EJS().ScriptManager() at the end of <body> in the ~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows.

~/_Layout.cshtml
<body>
...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Script Manager -->
    @Html.EJS().ScriptManager()
</body>

Add ASP.NET MVC Rich Text Editor control

Now, add the Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Rich Text Editor control in ~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml page.

CSHTML
@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("editor").ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <div>
        <p>The Rich Text Editor is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor useful to create and edit content, and return the valid <a href='https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/RichTextEditor/Overview'>HTML markup</a> or <a href='https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/RichTextEditor/DefaultMode'>markdown</a> of the content</p>
        <p><b> Toolbar </b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> Toolbar contains commands to align the text, insert link, insert image, insert list, undo / redo operations, HTML view, etc </p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Toolbar is fully customizable </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
        <p><b> Links </b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> You can insert a hyperlink with its corresponding dialog</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Attach a hyperlink to the displayed text. </p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Customize the quick toolbar based on the hyperlink </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
        <p><b> Image.</b></p>
        <ol>
            <li>
                <p> Allows you to insert images from an online source as well as the local computer</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> You can upload an image</p>
            </li>
            <li>
                <p> Provides an option to customize quick toolbar for an image </p>
            </li>
        </ol>
    </div>
</div>).Render()

Press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or ⌘+F5 (macOS) to run the app. Then, the Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Rich Text Editor control will be rendered in the default web browser.

ASP.NET MVC Rich Text Editor Control

Configure the toolbar with the tools using items field of the ToolbarSettings property as your application requires.

CSHTML
HomeController.cs
@model List<string>

@Html.EJS().RichTextEditor("toolbar").ToolbarSettings(e => e.Items((object)Model)).ContentTemplate(@<div>
    <p>
        The Rich Text Editor control is WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') editor that provides the best user experience to create and update the content.
        Users can format their content using standard toolbar commands.
    </p>
    <p><b> Key features:</b></p>

    <ul>
        <li><p> Provides &lt; IFRAME &gt; and &lt; DIV &gt; modes </p></li>

        <li><p> Capable of handling markdown editing.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains a modular library to load the necessary functionality on demand.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides a fully customizable toolbar.</p></li>

        <li><p> Provides HTML view to edit the source directly for developers.</p></li>

        <li><p> Supports third - party library integration.</p></li>

        <li><p> Allows preview of modified content before saving it.</p></li>

        <li><p> Handles images, hyperlinks, video, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li>

        <li><p> Contains undo / redo manager.</p></li>

        <li><p> Creates bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li>

    </ul>
</div>).Render()
public ActionResult Index()
{
    List<string> tools = new List<string>() {
        "Bold", "Italic", "Underline", "StrikeThrough",
        "FontName", "FontSize", "FontColor", "BackgroundColor",
        "LowerCase", "UpperCase", "|",
        "Formats", "Alignments", "OrderedList", "UnorderedList",
        "Outdent", "Indent", "|",
        "CreateLink", "Image", "CreateTable", "|", "ClearFormat", "Print",
        "SourceCode", "FullScreen", "|", "Undo", "Redo"
    };
    return View(tools);
}

ASP.NET Rich Text Editor with Toolbar

NOTE

| and - can insert a vertical and horizontal separator lines in the toolbar.

NOTE

View Sample in GitHub.